Siri, Google Now, Cortana. Who is better?

Siri, Google Now or Cortana, which of them is the best virtual assistant? Digital assistance has been around for decades. However, we are now starting to see them push their way into our day-to-day lives. The Android’s Google Now, iPhones Siri, and Window 10’s Cortana are all highly advanced assistants, complete with artificial assistance and have remarkably accurate voice recognition. Have a closer look at each of the digital assistants to find out which is the best of the lot.

Siri:

Siri is a built-in intelligent assistant which allows Apple users to use voice commands to operate the mobile device and its customizediPhone apps. Siri has been an integral part of iOS since its launch of iOS in 2011. Siri is powered by some of the very interesting technology that understands not just words but sentences. Apple iOS 10 allows third-party apps to integrate inline into the Siri voice assistant experience and it works with six kinds of iPhone apps like – ride booking Uber iPhone app, messaging, Photo Search, Payments, VoIP Calling like Skype and Workout iPhone apps for fitness activities. The downside of Siri is its reliance on voice, whereas Cortana and Google Now work easily with text inputs, but Siri requires voice inputs only. Opening certain iPhone apps like the Messenger app or Phone app can automatically connect you to Siri. It is not as wide-ranging as Google Now, but Siri works well with platform owner’s iPhone apps.

Cortana:

Cortana is a voice-controlled virtual assistant for Microsoft Windows phones. Microsoft’s virtual assistance is constantly analyzing your interactions to learn more about you. All that information is stored in something Microsoft calls the ‘Notebook’. Microsoft has big plans for Cortana and plans to use its voice recognition feature for “conversation as a service”. For example, from a conversation on Skype which discussed a business trip – Cortana could automatically search for flights and hotels using the Windows app. Microsoft plans to develop a range of truly innovative features that will push Cortana beyond Apple and Google’s reach.

When asked for directions, Cortana can respond with directions and will open up Windows Map app with directions to your location of choice. Cortana can create alarms for you, which is set in the Windows Alarm & Clock app. Cortana can launch programs for you – just say “Hey Cortana, launch App name” to your PC and it will automatically open that Windows app. This intelligent personal assistant can also send emails using the built-in Windows Mail app. It is good at working with other Windows apps on Windows devices and has a very powerful built-in reminder feature. Cortana has the ability to open up Windows app with just a few words. All you need to do is to instruct your PC to open up the desired Windows app. So just say ‘open Spotify’ to Cortana and then it will open up the Spotify Windows app.

Google Now:

Google Now is different from Siri and Cortana as it is designed with the general audience in mind. While it is part of Android OS, Google Now is also available as an iPhone app for iOS and can also be accessed by the Chrome browser. One can think of Google Now as an extension of Google’s search capabilities, but it does exactly what other two virtually assistants do. Just like Cortana and Siri, you can ask Google Now for directions and weather forecasts. Google’s integration with search engine makes Google Now one of the most useful virtual assistants out of the box. Google Now displays cards with information pulled from the user’s Gmail account and other Android apps. Users can also get Google Now as a free iPhone app, on Apple smartphones. Google Now offers a variety of functionalities, but it always runs in the background and collects data from your device and Android apps.

Downloading the BBC News App with Siri, Google Now, and Cortana is very similar. Siri actually opened up the online Store to directly download the BBC News iPhone App. Cortana returned a Bing search and Google Now also returned a Google search, with Android App Store as the first relevant link. Music streaming services are also work in a similar fashion. Siri works harmoniously with Apple Music iPhone app to provide music services. Google Now opens the Google Play Music or YouTube Android app. Cortana works with Microsoft’s little-known Groove Music Windows app to play your music.

Few say Cortana remains the best virtual assistant available. Microsoft and Google own services that have been used by a large number of web users already. Combining it with virtual assistant makes it even more convenient for the people using Windows apps and Android apps. All the three services are good on factual descriptions. Siri’s programmers have the best sense of humor. Google relies a lot on its search engine and Cortana is quickly catching up with both of them. Both Siri and Google Now are more consistent and provide a seamless experience than Cortana, which is clearly the youngest of the three. However Google Now is the pick for the best personal assistant. It may lack the personality of the other two but its smartness and activeness are the best.